Looking into Killeen TX market

[Brian Cowan]

Hi BP Family

I am looking to buy a rental property or property to owner finance to someone. The Killeen market is very attractive because of all the properties under $50k. I realize that these properties will not be in he best part of town, but I am just starting out with limited funds and am looking for some entry level properties. So my question is, does anyone on here have experience investing in these types of properties in Killeen? How did it work out for you? What rent rates are you able to get for them? Thanks in advance for any advice. 

[Brian Adams]

@Brian Cowan

At the following link is a list of the current Fort Hood Basic Housing Allowance stipend (BAH): 

http://www.hood.army.mil/dpw/Housing/BAH.aspx

The median rent in Killeen is about $800/mo, including apartments though.  I wouldn't recommend rentals that rent for less than about $550 (duplex/fourplex units) because of the difficulty finding quality tenants at prices below that.  The sweet spot is probably the $1000-$1200 range, above which there are diminishing returns in the amount of rent you can charge for higher quality homes.

Most foreclosures in the $60-$80k range you could probably get between $850-$950/mo, but as an investor you obviously can't pay more than makes sense with the numbers.  It's not any 2% rule stuff, but I have never seen anything close to something like 2% in our area - not without a lot of work that had to go into the home and make the 2% idea meaningless. 

I keep an updated list of potential buy-and-hold/flip deals that come up on the MLS, mostly foreclosures, that you can check out here:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1NJhUwMD3M6...

I hope it's helpful!